John Doe #2 Identified: But Can We Get the FBI to Arrest Him?
Part Seven
by Mike Vanderboegh, 1 ACR
PART SEVEN: "TENNESSEE ANDY" AND, THE BODIES IN THE BAYOU OR,
ATTACK OF THE ARYAN SPIN DOCTORS.
Well, we just got back from a fatiguing weekend in the wilds of Arkansas
running down witnesses in the Mueller murders. Sorry, Kirk, we made it
home in one piece, thanks be to God.
FLASH: The New York alphabet TV/media lemmings are all agog tonight (9
July 96) with rumors that Mikey Brescia, John Doe #2, has finally been
apprehended by the FBI. We cannot confirm this at this time, but are we
amused that everyone of them is scared stiff that someone else is going
to get the story that they are scared stiff to report: the government
coverup of the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy. How many phone calls
have passed between the Justice Department and the networks trying to
slow this story down, or spike it? More than one, we hear. The Emmy, or
the Pulitzer, is going to the first "mainstream" (read "left-bank")
media outlet that reports on Andy Strassmeir's ATF paychecks and the
FBI's John Doe Amnesia ("Uh, what's a John Doe?" -- Clinton-appointed
U.S. Attorney in Oklahoma).
NOTE: If anyone has been paying attention, the Aryan Republican Army
bank robber Guthrie just cut a deal with the feds in Cincinnati last
Wednesday to roll over on his buddies AND the Aryan Nations AND any
other group or individual who got some of the quarter million they stole
(Dennis Mahon, call your office! Kirk Lyons, call your office! Robert
Millar, call your office! It's five minutes to midnight,
Unterscheissfuhrer Thomas .... it's time
to cut a deal if you already haven't!). You know the darnedest thing
about the FBI right now is that you can't tell the good guys from the
bad guys without a score card. Poor Aryans. Poor CI's. Poor sheet-heads.
SPECULATION: Is it true what we hear about some Mikey Brescia link to
the bank robbers' storage locker in Shawnee, Kansas? Only the FBI knows
fer sure and they ain't telling, or are they? Is the Philadelphia
Inquirer going to use this as a lead this Sunday? Only they know fer
sure. And what's this "rumor" circulating about Andy Strassmeir and the
CIA training camp for "friendly terrorists" in the Phillipines? Vincent
Petruskie, call your case officer! Have you bought your tickets for
Costa Rica yet?
EXPLANATION: Bobby Norton-- that pinging sound you hear is somebody's
sonar estimating range to target. Do us all a favor and stay in
Tennessee. By the way, we heard you got a history of synagogue
bombing..... torch any black churches lately? Know anybody who has?
LOST AND FOUND DEPARTMENT: Left behind, several sets of fingerprints
carelessly placed on duct tape discarded in the Illinois Bayou of
northwestern Arkansas. If found, please return to Elohim City, Oklahoma
or Hayden Lake, Idaho. Part-time resident will be by to pick them up
after Clinton is reelected.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES: Will the party who has stated his intent to
"frag" me tomorrow, please stay home? You have a better chance of living
out the rest of your life, and I've got work to do.
Ok, that's enough fun for one evening. And now, to the serious stuff:
"TENNESSEE ANDY": Andreas Carl Strassmeir's Tennessee & North Carolina
Ties.
Attached you will find an article that ran on the front page of the
Sunday, 30 June 1996 edition of the Nashville Tennessean. My intention
was to post this along with some juicy stuff about Kirk and Andy and
Company and their relationships before and after the OKC bomb, but as
there is another story upcoming on this aspect of the story from another
angle, I will forgo the commentary for now. I have been recently
apprised that there are skeptics amongst us, and these will likely
believe a news story before they'll believe me. So, I'll let the
reporter tell the story and then post it for all to see. In any case, I
recommend the Tennessean story for all who wish to understand the OKC
bombing.
THE BODIES IN THE BAYOU, OR ATTACK OF THE ARYAN SPIN DOCTORS.
George Eaton, author of the Patriot Report, neighbor of Elohim City,
Mike Brescia's former landlord and sometime alibi for Andy Strassmeir's
whereabouts on the day of the bombing, has recently been speading the
tale that the Mueller's were done in by "New World Order Assassins" who
have been targeting gun dealers and various and sundry other unfortunate
Patriots (none of whom does Mr. Eaton mention by name). "Friends of the
Muellers believe, without any doubt, that the family was murdered by
professionals. They also believe that those with the motive for
silencing Bill are federal agencies who are enforcing gun control... The
professional hit squads have no fear of being stopped by authorities,"
Mr. Eaton reports rather breathlessly, "and they often use foreign
soldiers-- particularly Belgian, Soviet Bloc and Spanish-speaking
soldiers."
What, George, NO GERMANS? Why no Germans?
In a story that ran in yesterday's Arkansas Democrat Gazette (see
transcript below), George is quoted as saying "We believe it was the
same people who hit them the first time who hit them again... At this
stage we just don't know who gave the command." OK, George, so you're
saying whoever robbed them the first time, robbed and killed them the
second time? So, are we talking about a "New World Order burglary ring"
here, or "NWO Assassins?"
I've got a question: WHY WERE THE MUELLER'S EYEGLASSES STILL FOLDED ON
THE NIGHTSTAND? No one who wears glasses gets up out of bed without
putting them on, particularly in the middle of the night if they are
awakened by a sound, such as of someone breaking in. So, whoever rousted
the Muellers out of bed did so without warning, quietly, almost
instantaneously. Didn't they lock their doors at night? Or were their
murderous abductors already in the house? Someone known to them,
perhaps? Invited guests, even "friends", staying over for a night or
two, maybe? There are reports, some in the press, some on file with our
investigation, that the Muellers feared for their lives just prior to
their disappearance.
I've got another question: WHY WAS THE FBI MAKING INQUIRIES ABOUT THE
MUELLERS TO MILITIA GROUPS HALFWAY ACROSS THE CONTINENT WITHIN DAYS OF
THEIR DISAPPEARANCE? "Have you seen them?" they asked. "Do you know
where they might be?" they asked. I'll give ya a good guess: The
Muellers knew their killers, all right, and they were talking to the FBI
about them when they disappeared. How else would the FBI get on the case
so quickly? What accounts for their immediate and intense interest in an
out-of-the-way gun dealer who, when they asked the questions, may have
been on a long weekend for all they knew? I think the question answers
itself, but why don't you ask the FBI?
Finally, there is this: George Eaton's version of this and other events
surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy has materially shifted
in many particulars over the months in statements that he has given to
press, law enforcement and acquaintances. This "NWO Assassin" theory is
so patently absurd on its face, that one wonders what George's
motivation is for trying to pass it off as smoking hot Gospel. Get a
phone call from Kirk Lyons lately, George, or was it Robert Millar? One
should be very careful of statements made in public or private that may
later have to be made under oath: either in criminal court or in a civil
suit, as OJ has discovered to his chagrin. FYI, George, FYI.
Prevaricator emptor, Mr. Eaton.
Now, without further ado, the article in question:
LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE
Monday 8 July 1996
POLICE COME UP EMPTY AS THEY DIVE INTO MUELLER MYSTERY
by Michael Whiteley
Russellville-- The debris-filled waters of the Illinois Bayou appeared
as murky last week as the mystery surrounding the disappearance and
execution of William Mueller and his family. So far, the 20-foot deep
mixture of bridge parts, refuse and muck beneath the Pleasant View Road
overpass in Pope County has surrendered nothing but the dead.
Police divers took another plunge into the bayou off Highway 7 on friday
searching for weapons, gold, silver, or any other clue that may clear
the mystery surrounding the gruesome executions. Divers came up empty in
the week-old investigation of the triple murder that has triggered fear
among extremist groups and produced more questions than answers.
Searcy County Sheriff Kent griggs said the only good bet in the case is
that the killer or killers knew Mueller, the 53-year-old Tilly gun
dealer; his wife Nancy, 28; and her daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Powell, 8.
Police corrected Sarah's name from Mueller over the weekend.
The family vanished from their home around Jan. 5, when they were
supposed to leave the small Searcy County community for a Springdale gun
show. Their white Jeep Cherokee and trailer were found abandoned 17
miles north of Dover in February. Their bodies were found June 28 and 29
in 20 feet of water in the Illinois Bayou beneath Pleasant View Road
overpass 12 miles northeast of Russellville. Their heads were covered
with plastic bags and wrapped with duct tape. the adults had been
handcuffed. The bodies were so badly decomposed that authorities have
yet to find a cause of death.
(TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: IF THE FBI WAS SO INTERESTED IN THE MUELLER'S IN
LIFE, WHY HAVEN'T THEY TAKEN AN INTEREST IN THEM IN DEATH? WHY MUST WE
DEPEND ON THE NOTORIOUSLY INADEQUATE FORENSIC ABILITIES OF THE ARKANSAS
AUTHORITIES? DON'T THE FEDS WANT TO FIND WHO KILLED THEIR POTENTIAL
INFORMANTS? IF THEY COULDN'T PROTECT THEM IN LIFE, DON'T THEY OWE THEM
AT LEAST THAT MUCH NOW THAT THEY ARE DEAD?-- MBV)
Griggs and his investigators met with Pope County Sheriff Jay Winters on
Wednesday to compare notes. The Arkansas State Police divers and a diver
for the Pope County Office of Emergency Services spent 6/4 hours Friday
combing a 50-by-50-foot patch of bayou bottom near where the bodies were
found. "We were just looking for anything at all out there-- any
evidence we could find," Winters said. They turned up nothing.
The sheriff called off the underwater search Friday afternoon. Winters
said Sunday there were no developments in the case over the weekend and
no plans to resume the dives unless investigators turn up leads. Eluding
them is a motive, although friends and one close associate in the
Arkansas/Oklahoma branch of the militia movement says the slayings may
be tied to a second burglary of the Mueller's home in February, 1995.
The break-in, which also is being questioned by investigators, resulted
in the loss of gold and silver coins, guns, gun parts and survivalist
gear estimated to be worth $39,000 to $50,000.
Griggs says even the 1995 burglary is suspect. He could find no signs of
forced entry. He said mueller scheduled and missed three meetings with
police and an insurance company adjuster, so the insurance on the theft
was never paid. "I think that whatever happened, it was someone who knew
them in that they killed the little girl," Griggs said.
A week after a fisherman spotted a human leg in the dark water of the
bayou and called police, the picture of William Mueller and his ties to
the nation's anti-government community remain murky. Dennis Mahon, a
former Ku Klux Klan leader and organizer for White Aryan Resistance,
said he met Mueller and his family at a meeting of militia members and
white supremacists at Mountainburg two years ago. Militia of Montana
spokesman Randy Trochmann, who keeps a database of anti-government and
fringe religious groups, said Mueller was not known.
Mahon said the slayings mirror the pattern of Florida drug executions,
down to the plastic bags and duct tape. The slayings come at a time when
Mahon says he has been told members of the California-based white
supremacist movement are running methamphetamine labs in north Arkansas
and failing to send the money back to the movement to help finance a
government takeover that hate groups across the United states have
labelled the New World Order.
(TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: NOW ISN'T THAT A REMARKABLE STATEMENT? I HAVE BEEN
TOLD THAT MAHON WAS DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS ABOUT THE REALLY
IMPORTANT THINGS AND NOW I'M CONVINCED. IF THE ARYAN NATIONS ARE REALLY
RUNNING METH, THAT STATEMENT ALONE COULD GET MAHON DEAD. OF COURSE, HE
WOULDN'T EXPOSE A LINK LIKE THAT UNLESS IT WAS TO PROTECT A MORE
IMPORTANT LINK BY DOING SO. MORE LIKELY, THE DRUG LINK IS MADE UP
ALSO--- BUT WHY MENTION (OR LIE ABOUT) A DRUG CONNECTION UNLESS YOUR
TRYING TO COVERUP A MORE DIRECT CONNECTION? WHAT EVIDENCE IS OFFERED
THAT MUELLER USED METH OR KNEW OF METH LABS? MAHON JUST ENDS UP LOOKING
LIKE A CRIMINAL IDIOT. DIDN'T OJ USE THE CRAZED DOPE DEALER LINE, TOO?
KIRK LYONS IS ON RECORD IN A GERMAN NEO-NAZI MAGAZINE ABOUT HOW MUCH HE
ADMIRES MAHON AND HIS WORK. KIRK, BUDDY, IF THIS IS THE BEST YA GOT,
YOU'D BETTER HOPE THE PETRUSKIE'S OF THE WORLD ARE REAL EAGER TO COVER
YOUR STUPID BUTTS, INSTEAD OF "ERASING THEIR LIABILITIES". YA'LL SHO
AIN'T NO "ASSET" TO THEM ANYMORE. MAHON, SAVE YOURSELF FROM YOUR OWN
STUPIDITY, THE FEDS HAVE A 1-800 SNITCH NUMBER, CALL IT AND MAKE A DEAL
BEFORE KIRK FIGURES HE HAS TO. IF YOU DON'T TRUST THE FEDS , TURN YOURSELF IN TO THE OKLAHOMA STATE FOLKS. THEY'LL
PROTECT YOU. BUT DON'T TRY LYING TO THEM, YOU'RE JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH AT
IT.)
Mahon and his group have been named as potential suspects in court
documents filed by Stephen Jones, the lead attorney for Oklahoma City
bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh. Jones alleges that the master plan for
the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building may
have been hatched by an international group of terrorists in the United
States, Great Britain and Germany. Mahon has denied knowledge of the
bombing.
He said he was told that men claiming their profits are financing the
Aryan movement are running a large methamphetamine lab in Russellville.
"I can tell you that no one in White Aryan Resistance condones drug
activity, and the profit's not coming to us," he said. "But from
everything I've seen, this is a drug hit."
(TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: COMING SOON TO SEARCY COUNTY, ARKANSAS-- BILLBOARDS
PROCLAIMING... "NANCY REAGAN AND THE WHITE ARYAN RESISTANCE SAY: JUST
SAY 'NO!' TO DRUGS." YEAH, RIGHT.)
Griggs and Winters say they heard the same reports but have nothing to
tie them to the Mueller case.
George Eaton, who publishes the Patriot Report from Uniontown, said he
was a friend of the Muellers' and that Mueller expressed fear for his
life about two months before the family vanished. Eaton said Mueller, an
expert rifleman, had an extensive military background and may have been
marked for execution by someone who viewed him as a threat. Eaton said
Mueller had drawn attention because of repeated clashes with the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms after the agency told Mueller to stop
using gun shows to sell Eaton's newsletter and audio and video tapes
Eaton markets on extremist clashes with the government.
Eaton insisted that Mueller was not involved in illegal activity. "We
believe it was the same people who hit them the first time who hit them
again," Eaton said. "At this stage, we just don't know who gave the
command." A law enforcement official who asked not to be named said
Mahon's comments fit with intelligence reports of ties between drugs and
anti-government activity primarily identified in Boone and Marion
counties. He said a common thread is that methamphetamine is the drug of
choice for young, rural white people-- the prime recruiting target of
hate groups in Arkansas.
They were saying, "We're going to bury you so that you'll never be
found. You'll be so far in hell, you will never be seen again," the law
enforcement official said. "It was a very professional job and executed
by a hit man."
(TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: WELL WHO ARE YOU, MYSTERIOUS "LAW ENFORCEMENT
OFFICIAL" AND WHO ARE YOU QUOTING? IS THIS WHAT THE MUELLER'S TOLD YOU
BEFORE THEY TURNED UP DEAD? ARE YOU A FEDERAL COP? WHAT AGENCY? OR ARE
YOU A DIRTY LOCAL COP? AND HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT IT WAS "A PROFESSIONAL
JOB... EXECUTED BY A HIT MAN" IF THE BODIES ARE SO DECOMPOSED A CAUSE OF
DEATH CANNOT BE DETERMINED? THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS WILL SHED A
BRIGHT, WHITE LIGHT ON THE ENTIRE AFFAIR. DEMOCRAT GAZETTE, GO BACK AND
DO YOUR JOB RIGHT. --MBV)
But those who knew the Muellers, including the police, say they were
law-abiding citizens who worked alongside law enforcement. While working
as an electrician and gun dealer in Hector, Mueller was elected as a
Pope County constable in 1990 and 1992. He chose not to seek a third
term and moved to the converted headquarters of a home-schooling program
in Tilly in 1994. Mueller also reported that he had served as a team
leader on the Hector first response team; his wife was its secretary.
But in 1994, the Mueller's moved to a home formerly occupied by Timothy
Thomas Coombs, who's been a fugitive since 1994. Missouri authorities
say Coombs, 37, lived as James Wilson in the Tilly area. He is wanted
for allegedly shooting and seriously wounding Missouri State Trooper
Bobby J. Harper on Sept. 16, 1994, in retaliation for Harper's arrest of
Robert Joos Jr. in McDonald County, Missouri. Police and militia group
members say Coombs has not been seen since.
Last week Sylvia Mason, the Mueller's landlord, denied reports that
Mueller and Coombs were associated. "These reports are all wrong," she
said. She said Coombs left the home in 1986 and it was rented repeatedly
before the Muellers moved in two years ago. Local records show Mason
handled a real estate sale for Coombs.
(Information for this article was contributed by Democrat-Gazette staff
writers Jay Meisel and Doug Peters.)
END OF DEMOCRAT GAZETTE ARTICLE
COMING SOON IN "John Doe #2 Identified: But Can We Get the FBI to Arrest
Him?"
PART EIGHT: THE LITTLE PAPER THAT BLEW THE WHISTLE ON JOHN DOE #2
Content-ID: <0_28176_836984215@emout17.mail.aol.com.16375>
Content-type: text/plain;
name="TENNESS.EAN"
THE TENNESSEAN V.92,N.182 JUNE 30, 1996
SPECIAL REPORT
OKLAHOMA CITY PROBE MAY TOUCH TENNESSEE
Two men are charged in the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168:
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols.
But many people, including federal grand jurors, believe others were
involved, based on eyewitness accounts. The grandparents of two children
killed in the blast believe a German citizen with Tennessee ties,
Andreas Strassmeir, may be able to shed light on a wider conspiracy. He
says he knows nothing. Here's what witnesses say:
By Laura Frank
Staff Writer
Two weeks before a truck bomb crumbled the Murrah Federal Building in
Oklahoma City, bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh telephoned a remote
religious compound near Oklahoma-Arkansas border.
Records of the call, which have been widely leaked to the media and were
obtained by The Tennessean, show it lasted 1 minute and 56 seconds. No
one disputes this.
People at the religious compound, known as Elohim City, say the call was
for "Andy"- Andy Strassmeir.
They say, too, he was not there and never took the call.
But many people wonder why McVeigh wanted to talk to Strassmeir in those
last few days before the bombing.
McVeigh simply is not saying.
And Strassmeir, a former German army officer and the son of a prominent
German politician, says he simply does not know.
Strassmeir, who obtained a Tennessee driver's license in 1992 claiming a
Knoxville address, returned to Germany three months after the bombing.
At least three eyewitnesses say they saw Strassmeir in the tiny Kansas
town where prosecutors allege McVeigh and Terry Nichols bought and
stockpiled the ingredients of a bomb, and where McVeigh is charged with
renting a truck and filling it with the explosive combination of
ammonium nitrate and diesel fuel.
Strassmeir says he met McVeigh only once, casually in October 1994, at a
gun show in Tulsa.
"I don't know this McVeigh guy," Strassmeir said in a telephone
interview from Berlin. "We met at a gun show once and talked for five
minutes."
Moreover, Strassmeir told The Tennessean he has never been to Kansas,
claims to have an alibi for the weeks before the bombing and says he
knows nothing about the fertilizer-and-fuel bomb that killed 168 people
and injured more than 500 on April 19, 1995.
Glenn and Kathy Wilburn, whose two grandsons were killed in the blast,
have deep doubts about Strassmeir's statements.
The image of the bloodied and broken bodies of their 2- and 3- year-old
grandsons is seared in the Wilburns' minds. But they are haunted by the
accounts of witnesses who say a man they have identified as Strassmeir
appeared in central Kansas about the same time as McVeigh and Nichols.
The Wilburns believe Strassmeir's relationship with McVeigh goes deeper
than Strassmeir is admitting and that Strassmeir may be privy to more
information about the bombing than he is letting on.
They have no documentary evidence, like credit card receipts or
photographs, to support their claim. But they cite statements by
witnesses who describe a tall, thin, German man who, at least one
witness claims, was a frequent face in the tiny towns that surround Fort
Riley, Kan.
The Tennessean talked to some of those witnesses:
Catina Lawson, 23, who lived in Herington, Kan., during 1992, says she
attended numerous parties in central Kansas that summer where she
remembers seeing both McVeigh and Strassmeir.
That was the summer of her high school graduation and a time of newfound
freedom, Catina recalls. There were lots of parties, at lakes and in
pastures and at homes around Fort Riley, the Army base where McVeigh had
been stationed.
Oftentimes, the local young women and the soldiers would get together to
have some fun.
Lawson says she distinctly remembers McVeigh, thinking him to be "kind
of cute" and assuming him to be a soldier.
She cannot, however, recall specific times or places she met the German
man she knew as Andy.
"He was just someone you'd see every once in a while," Lawson said in a
recent interview in Wheatland, Wyo., where she now lives.
Lawson says she is bothered that she can't remember the places or dates,
but says she remembers details about Strassmeir that support her claim.
He liked to wear all black, she recalled. He was tall, skinny and pale,
with crooked teeth and sunken eyes surrounded by dark circles.
"And he had this accent," Lawson recalls. "I remember thinking he was
rude, Every time you talked to him, he wanted to argue with you."
Lawson says she cannot remember what they argued about. Digging into
what she says are sometimes hazy memories of those parties, Lawson
cannot recall seeing McVeigh and Strassmeir talking to each other.
But when shown a photograph of Strassmeir, she instantly recognizes it,
saying "That's Andy. I'm positive."
Larry and Cathy Wild are anything but reckless teen-agers engaged in the
frolics of youth. He's a retired high school coach, she a housewife.
Yet, both say they saw and talked to Andy Strassmeir at a lake north of
Herington the week before the Oklahoma City bombing.
"I said,'Your dialect is really different. Are you a soldier?'" Larry
Wild recalled. "He said, 'No.' I said, 'Do you work for the government?'
He just kind of laughed."
Based on statements from these witnesses, and others the Wilburns have
talked with, they believe Strassmeir has not been entirely forthcoming
about his knowledge of McVeigh, and possibly the bombing.
The Wilburns would like to take his statement under oath. They might get
their chance.
Their daughter, Edye Smith, has filed a $30 million lawsuit against
McVeigh and "unknown others" for the deaths of her two sons. As part of
that, McVeigh's lawyer wants to question Strassmeir.
Strassmeir and his attorney suggest an alternative theory for how and
why eyewitnesses claim he was in Kansas: McVeigh's defense team has sent
an investigator around central Kansas with a photo of Strassmeir
suggesting to people that they might have seen him.
Their goal, according to Strassmeir: To cloud the credibility of the
witnesses, who also claim they saw McVeigh. Using this strategy, he
believes, McVeigh's lawyers hope to spare him from the death penalty.
The Wilds and Lawson say they have been shown photos by McVeigh's
defense team but were not led to identify Strassmeir. And, they note,
the FBI showed them pictures of Strassmeir first.
WHO IS ANDY STRASSMEIR?
Strassmeir says he first came to the United States in 1988 to attend the
125th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. He traveled between
countries for a few years, then returned to the United States in 1991
hoping to stay, adds his lawyer, Kirk Lyons of Black Mountain, N.C.
Vincent Petruskie, a retired Air Force colonel and father of an
acquaintance and fellow Civil War buff, tried to help him get a job with
the Drug Enforcement Agency or Immigration and Naturalization Service,
Strassmeir says. But no job was offered.
In August 1992, Strassmeir got a Tennessee driver's license and
registered his 1983 Chevrolet by claiming a residence at 7613 Thorngrove
Pike on the eastern edge of Knoxville.
Strassmeir says he lived there "a short time." His lawyer says
Strassmeir might have spent the night there a few times, but used the
address mainly to circumvent stricter auto insurance requirements of
other states where Strassmeir stayed.
The man who then rented the 1,300-square-foot house in Knoxville says
Strassmeir never actually lived there - spending the night only once.
But Ray Woodruff says Strassmeir was welcome because he was a
like-minded "patriot," concerned about a government conspiracy to "take
away our guns and invade our homes." Woodruff says he is on the board of
advisers for the National Council for Conservative Citizens.
Woodruff, who now lives in Sevierville, Tenn., says he met Strassmeir at
Lyon's home and offered to let him use his address. Woodruff says he has
not talked to Strassmeir about the Oklahoma City bombing but does not
believe Strassmeir had any knowledge of it.
"Nobody's advocating violence," says Woodruff, a retired exterminator.
"We're trying to do things in a peaceful manner."
Strassmeir says he spent most of his time at Elohim City, a 400- acre
Christian Identity community in Muldrow, Okla., where about 100 people
live. Strassmeir went there to work for cash because he had no visa
permitting hem to work legally, his lawyer says.
Elohim City is widely viewed as a white-separatist compound with an
unorthodox breed of Christianity: Jews are the devil's children, white
Europeans are God's chosen people, and blacks are sub-human, according
to some of their literature.
Questions concerning Elohim City arose immediately after the bombing.
Richard Wayne Snell, a white supremacist who killed a black police
officer and a man he believed was Jewish, was executed in Arkansas hours
after the bombing. Some conspiracy theorists believe the bombing was a
sendoff or retaliation for Snell, who had close ties to Elohim City and
is buried there.
WAS THERE A WIDER CONSPIRACY?
There is one detail of the bombing upon which many people agree -
including the grand jury that indicted McVeigh and Nichols - two Army
buddies who distrust the government they once served - could have acted
alone.
The indictment of McVeigh and Nichols says they acted "with other
unknown" to grand jurors to conspire to place a truck bomb at the base
of the federal building, just below the second-floor windows of the
building's day-care center.
"Whoever put that truck there had to have seen the children," Kathy
Wilburn says, holding back tears. "We have a right to know who did this
to our babies."
There are two primary reasons cited for the involvement of others:
* Several eyewitnesses saw McVeigh and someone known as John Doe No. 2
at the federal building the morning of the blast. Other witnesses say
they saw up to four people with McVeigh that morning.
Dozens of Doe look-alikes have been questioned. No one has been
arrested.
Police sketches of John Doe No. 2 bear no resemblance to Strassmeir and
no one has identified him as being in Oklahoma City on the day of the
blast.
* Grand jurors believe McVeigh and Nichols financed the bombing by
"causing" the robbery of $60,000 worth of guns, coins and precious
metals from a Royal, Ark., gun dealer in October 1994.
Someone who does not match the description of either McVeigh or Nichols
staged the robbery, but authorities have made no arrests.
Strassmeir's attorney says if the German national is brought to court to
answer questions about the bombing, he will be able to show he was
nowhere near Kansas or Oklahoma City in the two weeks before the blast.
His evidence, Lyons says, is a few notes scratched on a Norman Rockwell
calendar. Strassmeir says he was mending fences near Elohim City for an
elderly woman he and Lyons refused to identify. She kept track of the
days Strassmeir worked by marking them on her calendar.
While Strassmeir and his attorney insist he was working the week before
the bombing, they say there are no notations on the calendar between
April 9 and 15, the same time period the Wilds claim to have seen
Strassmeir in Herington.
The Wilds and Lawson all say the FBI has questioned them about
Strassmeir.
Federal investigators will not comment on their work. Strassmeir and his
lawyer say the FBI and U.S. attorney's office in Denver, where the
bombing trail will be held, have told them Strassmeir is not a suspect.
Representatives from both offices questioned Strassmeir in a three-way
phone conference in May, Lyons says.
"The FBI are not beginners," Strassmeir says. "They know eyewitnesses
are not always reliable sources."
Staff Writer Kirk Loggins and Tennessean researcher Glenda Washam
contributed to this report.
Photo captions:
"German citizen Andreas Carl Strassmeir, who used a Knoxville address at
one time, has been questioned by the FBI about the Oklahoma City
bombing."(Photo of Strassmeir by R.L. Sherrow)
Insert map showing Ft. Riley, Kan. to Oklahoma City in the OKLA., KAN.,
MO., and ARK. corner area. (Diane Nottingham / Staff)
"Colton Smith, 2, and brother Chase, 3, were among 19 children killed in
the bombing. Their mother, Edye Smith, Has filed a $30 million lawsuit
against suspect Timothy McVeigh."
"Kathy and Glenn Wilburn look where the day-care center used to be in
the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Before the Oklahoma City bombing.
Behind them are the remnants of buildings that were also destroyed in a
blast that killed their two grandsons." (Rex Perry / Staff)
NEWSPAPER SAYS STRASSMEIR HAD INFORMATION ON CONSPIRACY
By Laura Frank
Staff Writer
In the days after the Oklahoma City bombing, conspiracy theories spread
like shock waves.
One suggests the government staged the blast to discredit the militia
movement.
Another of the most persistent theories suggest the federal government
was not responsible but had prior knowledge of the bombing and bungled
an attempt to sting the conspirators.
No one has produced any evidence to support the theories, but Andreas
Carl Strassmeir - the German national with Tennessee ties who says he's
been questioned by authorities about the blast - seems to adhere to the
latter theory.
A London newspaper reported Strassmeir as saying he had information
about a conspiracy and a sting.
In The Sunday Telegraph, Strassmeir said, "The ATF had an informant
inside this operation. They had advance warning and they bungled it."
Strassmeir now says he was misquoted. His attorney says the quote was a
hypothetical guess taken out of context. The reporter, Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard, says Strassmeir repeated the same idea multiple times,
and he stands by his story.
His quotes have led some conspiracy theorists to question whether
Strassmeir himself might have been working for the United States
government to infiltrate the bombing conspiracy. Strassmeir denies this.
But when asked if he thought the alleged informant would ever speak out,
Evans-Pritchard reported Strassmeir replying:
"How can he? What happens if it was a sting operation from the very
beginning? What happens if it comes out that the plant was a
provocateur? What then? The relatives of the victims are going to go
crazy, and he's going to be held responsible for the murder of 168
people? Of course the informant can't come forward. He's scared stiff
right now.
Photo Captions:
"Catina Lawson, 23, says she knew bombing suspect Tim McVeigh and
remembers seeing Terry Nichols. She also says she saw German national
Andreas Strassmeir in her hometown of Herington, Kan." (Rex Perry
/Staff)
"This house at 6713 Thorngrove Pike on the eastern edge of Knoxville is
where Andreas (Andy) Strassmeir claimed residence on his Tennessee
driver's license." (Rick Musacchio / Staff)